THE ALTERED FLEA: Painting Metal Cabinets

Showing posts with label Painting Metal Cabinets. Show all posts

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Industrial Chic Craft Storage

It's been a peculiar year. Sometimes, life throws you curves. I guess that's what makes us stronger. As I'm turning 58 years young next week, I guess it's time to admit I'm a real grown up--whatever that means. My Dad passed away early this year, and while we are all grateful he lived almost 91 years, it wasn't without its bumps along the way. Yes, we are grateful, but that doesn't make me feel less sad.

My Dad was the optimal optimist. His thoughts were always positive, believing that tomorrow will be a better day. With the crazy world we live in, it is important to think, hope and believe that tomorrow will, indeed, be better.

To help with all the insanity, I'm glad for my arts & crafts--it's the best therapy ever. Although I haven't posted anything new this year, I have spent many a day, wandering up and down the ~~junk~~-treasure-packed aisles at the local flea market and at a few yard sales. I hide my quirky and rusty finds in the corner of our backyard, hidden from view.

I'm in the process of replacing my plastic storage bins with industrial chic organization. Remember my 33-drawer metal cabinet and my very cool-for-school locker transformations? Recently, I purchased a wonderfully rusty, 18-drawer metal cabinet, and knew it would make a perfect storage unit for my rubber stamp collection.

Here is a photo of it in its original glory:

First things first, comes the mundane: cleaning each one of those 18 drawers. Ugh -- remind me again why I bought this. It was hot outside, so hosing down those little monsters was actually keeping me cool.

I spray-primed the entire piece and each drawer, then hand-brushed the drawers with a pretty shade of green, leaving the label holders white.

Then it was time to re-organize my stamps and move the ones I want to keep into the metal drawers. Here is a photo of the old and new storage side-by-side:

And here is the [almost] finished cabinet. [I still need to create the labels.] This cabinet also has three large openings at the top which are perfect for housing card stock, stamp pads, and ~~miscellaneous~~ other very important items.

Once the labels are in place, I should easily be able to find specific stamps to create a personal, handmade card or gift. Come on over and craft with me!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Lockers: The Right Combination

When the going gets tough, the tough get the paint out! That's my mantra right now as I work towards giving my craft room a complete overhaul.

I'm happy with the way I transformed the Industrial Chic Cabinet, so I got started on this old school locker.

First things first, it got a much-needed cleaning. Just simple dishwasher liquid and hot water did the trick.

I wanted to keep the handles in their original gray finish, so I taped them before painting the rest of the locker.

First, I sprayed a quick heirloom white metal primer onto the entire locker [inside and out]. To achieve some level of cohesiveness in my craft room, I decided to paint the locker the same color as the Industrial Chic Cabinet, a seafoam-aqua hue. I again mixed the paint with some Plaster of Paris to create chalk paint. I used a small foam roller to easily apply the chalk paint to the five compartment doors. I used a small painting brush to get inside all the nooks and crannies of the air vents.

Here is the newly-painted locker:

Of course, I can't just leave well enough alone, so I lined the shelves with coordinating scrapbook paper.

I decided the front of the locker needed something extra as well, so I printed out numerals 1-5, and using my Xyron, turned them into stickers, and adhered them to the cabinet faces.

Help me say ~~good riddance~~ goodbye to the plastic bins:

And hello to my transformed locker:

I've been collecting vintage, rusty and old graters (and anything that resembles a grater), so now I have a place to display them.

Two graters hang on the side of the locker; one holds a memo pad.

Also displayed on top of the locker is a smaller version of my

Chicken Wire & Burlap Painted Frame.

Here is a photo of two 2-drawer file cabinets.

One is painted; and the other one is on the waiting list.

[Blame it on the locker.]

As you can see, my craft room is slowly being transformed

from a bunch of plastic storage containers into

Vintage Industrial Chic

How do you store your craft supplies?

You may be interested in these projects:

From Plastic Bins to Industrial Chic

Framed in Chicken Wire & Burlap

I've been featured!

Sharing at these fantastic blogs:
Repurposing Junkie - Sweet Inspiration
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Tip Junkie Handmade Projects
Not Just a Housewife
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COM Sunday Soiree

Thursday, March 27, 2014

From Plastic Bins to Industrial Chic Organization

I just can't get rid of these fleas!--these flea market treasures, that is! And why would I? Here's the latest and greatest flea market find that I recently updated, a 33-drawer metal cabinet.

At a ginormous flea market held once a month in Southern Californial, I actually passed by this heavy metal piece twice, telling myself that it was too cumbersome to lug home, and I didn't want to pay the asking price.

Fast forward to my third walk-by. It was still there [obviously, it was calling my name]. I negotiated the price down to an equitable amount for both me and the seller.

I brought it home, and here it sat...not for days, not for weeks, but for months. Until finally, I got into gear and cleaned it. [That's the not-so-fun part.] I thoroughly washed every last drawer--and did I mention there are 33 of them?

I knew I was a woman on a mission: to transform my tiny craft ~~cave~~ room from cheap plastic bins into industrial chic organization.

I spray-painted the entire frame with a clean metal primer followed by two coats of Heirloom White.

Then I spray painted each drawer with the metal primer. It was going to be tedious to tape up each of the 33 drawer pulls--plus I had a vision, so they got sprayed, too.

And then came the fun part: the splash of color! Using a foam brush, I painted each drawer, including the sides, in a beautiful sea foam color, being careful to paint just up to the edges of the drawer pulls.

When I removed the drawers from the cabinet, I started to keep them in order to guarantee each fitting into its proper slot when it was time to place them back, as the cabinet had a few dents here and there. However, this plan immediately went out the window. [Note to self: next time, number each drawer on its bottom.] With a little elbow grease, though, I got each drawer to fit into a slot.

I then sprayed the entire cabinet with a matte sealer to help protect it from nicks and scratches.

Because, obviously, this piece is going to get frequent usage!

Just for comparison sake,

here is the BEFORE photo of my plastic bin storage:

And here is the AFTER photo of the

new [old] industrial chic organization cabinet.

I typed descriptive labels on my printer, and placed them into the center of the drawer pulls. I love the fact that the cabinet resembles a library card catalog.

I'm still in the process of filling each drawer with my craft stash, keeping only what I ~~have accumulated over the last 30 years~~ plan to use.

And once again, industrial chic organization:

Come back soon and check out the industrial locker transformation I'm currently working on. Yep, picked up the locker at a flea market, too. What treasures have you recently bought at the flea market?

Thanks for visiting,